I understand some wanting to make excuses for JPMorgan’s undeniably large market shares in gold and silver. There is an instructive message here as well – since JPM’s market corners can’t be denied, all that’s left is trying to explain it away any way possible. The excuses confirm that the market shares held by JPM exist and need explaining. Oh, and one last flimsy excuse is needed to explain, if these outsized market corners are so normal, why is there only one bank atop the gold and silver market heap? If this market making is such a legitimate business – why aren’t other banks offering competition? I have a better question – why is JPMorgan so entrenched in gold and silver trading, when they are withdrawing from every other commodities business? (I say because they can’t exit quietly as they are the market). - Silver analyst Ted Butler: 12 February 2014
Today’s pop/folk “blast from the past” was sent to me by reader David Mancini last Saturday—and I thought it worth sharing. This singer/songwriter is a living legend in Canada—and neither he, nor the tune, needs any introduction whatsoever. The performance datesfrom 1974—40 years ago this year—and the link is here.
Today’s classical “blast from the past” is a short work—and the only well-known composition of Italian composer and cellist Luigi Boccherini. You’ll know it instantly—and the link to the youtube.com video is here.
It was encouraging to see such positive precious metal price action on a Friday—and I certainly hope that this is a harbinger of things to come. It certainly should be, as all the precious metals are many orders of magnitude lower in price than they would be if their respective prices weren’t being managed in the Comex futures market by JPMorgan et al.
I really stood up and took notice of the actions of JPMorgan in the latest COT Report that came out yesterday. As I mentioned further up, it showed that, for the second week in a row, they had decreased their short-side corner in the Comex silver market—and increased their long-side corner in the gold market. I was impressed that it happened in the prior week’s COT Report, but when it happened twice in row in the current price environment, I must admit that I’m really paying attention now.
